Mars Mantle Structure Discovery Reveals Planet’s Ancient Formation History

Recent NASA Mars missions have yielded groundbreaking insights into the Red Planet's geological and potentially biological history. Dr. Constantinos Charalambous’ analysis of seismic data from the InSight mission revealed a heterogeneous Martian mantle preserving ancient impact scars and magma remnants, shedding light on Mars' early thermal evolution and interior dynamics. Meanwhile, NASA's Perseverance rover discovered strong evidence of an ancient, fast-flowing river in Jezero Crater, indicated by sediment layers and rock formations typical of a meandering river system, supporting the crater's history as a lake and raising the possibility of past habitable conditions. Perseverance also captured the clearest panoramic images of Mars, enhancing understanding of surface features and geological processes. Additionally, the rover's instruments detected mineral patterns known as "leopard spots" on a rock called Cheyava Falls, which may be indicative of microbial life, although abiotic formation remains a possibility. These findings collectively advance the search for ancient life and inform future Mars exploration missions.